CANBERRA have named Terry Campese as captain with props Brett White and David Shillington his lieutenants.

A STAR player who missed nearly all of the 2011 NRL season, a prop forward who had a year to forget in 2011 and another prop, who only joined the Raiders in 2011, will make up the Raiders leadership group this season.

As expected, five-eighth Terry Campese was installed as the team's new captain at the Raiders season launch last night, with David Shillington and Brett White named vice-captains.

Raiders fans are looking to Campese to carry the club back to the finals in 2012 after a string of injuries, including a serious knee operation, forced him to spend all but one match on the sidelines last year.

Campese said he is looking forward to having White and Shillington alongside him in a new-look leadership team at the Canberra Raiders following the retirement of workhorse veteran Alan Tongue.

"They've led from the front this summer,'' Campese said.

"I love the Raiders and I'm extremely honoured to be named captain of the club I have been a part of since my youth.

"Theres been some magnificent leaders in the past including the most recent in Alan Tongue and I hope I can continue on from where he left off.''

Campese also declared himself a certain starter for their round one clash with the Melbourne Storm on March 3 after scans revealed only a slight strain in his left adductor muscle.

Canberra prop Brett White has declared the Raiders forward pack is willing to sacrifice brute power for brain power in a bid to increase its impact this season.

The Raiders boast one of the NRL's biggest and most highly credentialled packs, but White said they didn't to use its size to their advantage last year.

Mobility has been a catchcry for the Raiders forwards over the off-season, and White believes tweaking their tactics will turn their fortunes around.

"You look at the best forward packs . . . the mobile ones are the most effective ones," White said.

"Every team's big and strong and scary playing NRL, but it's about being effective. If you're making a big hit but the opposition's still getting a fast play-the-ball, it's not effective and it's something we've identified.

"As much as spectators like to see big hits and the players like to put them on, unless they're effective it doesn't work and it actually goes against you."

White said the Raiders pack, the subject of plenty of pre-season hype last year, had struggled to adjust to opponents lifting against them.

With external pressure significantly less ahead of 2012, White said the likes of David Shillington, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs and Bronson Harrison were better prepared for that challenge.

"In the past there's been plenty of hype about the Raiders' forward pack, and especially last year, but we didn't get it done," he said. "Teams would get up for us, especially other forward packs wanted to test themselves against us?. I don't think it was a disadvantage having a big pack, we just needed to identify how we use that size and the areas where we had to improve our speed and agility."

Canberra's vaunted prop rotation of White, Shillington, Learoyd-Lahrs and Tilse have been highly impressive over the pre-season, and outpointed Melbourne's pack in a trial at Albury a fortnight ago.

Their agility and ability to make second efforts in defence was particularly noticeable. But White insisted the side wasn't reading too much into trial wins over Melbourne and Canterbury before this Saturday's season opener against his former side the Storm.

"We can't get too excited about that, teams are still mucking around with ideas and different combinations," White said. "It'll be good to see how we stack up against what I think is a top-four side straight away.

"In trials you normally do have your backside hanging out and struggling, but we felt really good and it's a credit to Fordy [conditioning coach Matt Ford] and the stuff he's brought in."

White believes he is in arguably the best shape of his career and is relishing a training regime he says differs markedly to that he experienced in Melbourne.

"Here it's a lot about our fitness and what's best for your body physically, but in Melbourne it tends to be more about the mind and what you can push yourself through," White said.

"It's totally different training, and it's one thing I'm enjoying about the Raiders.

Raiders prop Brett White told Grandstand's David Packwood that his side worked hard against the Roosters but losing Josh Dugan and Shaun Fensom hurt the Raiders too hard in their Sunday afternoon clash in Sydney.

Canberra prop Brett White has rejected LARS surgery on his damaged knee in favour of a traditional reconstruction after shelving hopes of a return late in the 2012 season.

White snapped his anterior cruciate ligament during Monday night's loss to North Queensland and was offered the chance to fast-track his return by undergoing the revolutionary LARS procedure.

But White considered the prospect of coming back for just a handful of games at the back-end of the season not worth the risk and will instead go in for a complete reconstruction and almost a year of rehabilitation before starting the 2013 season.

The loss of White for the year severely depletes the Raiders' forward depth, with second-rower Troy Thompson joining Shaun Fensom, Josh Dugan and David Shillington on the sideline after picking up an ankle injury against the Cowboys.

Scans will determine just how long the in-form Thompson is out.

"I was starting to feel really good about the way I was playing in the second row and to succumb to this injury is just devastating," Thompson said.

With White and Thompson both missing, debutants Jarrad Kennedy and Mark Nicholls have been named on the Canberra bench for Sunday afternoon's clash with the Warriors at Canberra Stadium.

It's a funny statement to make given the NRL season is only five weeks old, but indicative of the positive attitude the injured Canberra Raiders prop is maintaining.

The former Kangaroos and NSW representative's season came to a grinding halt when he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Monday night's 22-6 loss to the North Queensland Cowboys at Canberra Stadium.

Perhaps the only three people pleased to see him at home are his biggest fans - eight-year-old daughter Georgia and sons Jack, 5, and Colt, 19 months.

''I keep looking at the bright side - I can keep an eye on my son's footy and soccer games throughout the year,'' White said.

''I'll be able to spend some time with the kids this year and during the recovery.''

White will have a traditional reconstruction today which has a nine-month recovery period.

The other option was ligament augmentation and reconstruction system (LARS) surgery, which involves using a synthetic ligament and has been used by several AFL players in a bid to return to the field quicker.

But after taking advice from his surgeon, and having seen the successful return Raiders captain Terry Campese has made from his reconstruction, White is taking the safe option.

''We spoke about either one and life after footy as well,'' White said.

''It's about getting it right and not mucking around with it and being 100 per cent in 2013.

''Plenty of blokes have done this, look at Campo.

''I think he had a bit more damage in his knee and he's flying.

''I was feeling really good before this happened so I've got no doubt I can get back to the field again.''

White, who turns 30 on Sunday and is contracted with the Raiders until the end of next year, has taken a lot of heart from how Campese has burst back to form after his knee reconstruction in September, 2010.

Campese returned to the field after nine months, only to tear his adductor muscle in his first game back.

The Raiders five-eighth has played all five games this season.

''I actually rung [Campese] this morning after I got out of the surgeons,'' White said.

''Just had a chat to him about how it was, how he felt after the operation.

''Today's the first day of pre-season for 2013 for me. It gives me plenty of time to get ready and take my time with it to get it right.''

White said he felt a sharp pain in his knee as soon as he went to tackle Cowboys forward James Tamou.

Brumbies flyhalf Matt Toomua sustained the same season-ending injury at the same ground on Saturday, but White didn't notice anything with the surface which contributed to his injury.

''I must have twisted on it the wrong way,'' White said.

''I asked the Doc to speak English to me, give it to me straight up, what it was and how bad it was.

''It's just an unfortunate thing.''

Second-rower Joel Thompson will join White on the sidelines for the next four to six weeks with a lateral ankle strain.

That rules the 23-year-old out of his third consecutive appearance for the Country Origin team.

Having made a successful transition to the forward pack this season, Thompson is desperate to return as soon as possible.

''Missing the Raiders games comes first and I'm devastated,'' Thompson said.

Canberra Raiders Vice-Captain Brett White is doing his bit to promote a new website which aims assist sport and recreation clubs throughout Australia.

The Play by the Rules website to provide news, resources and free online training to assist sport and recreation clubs and administrators, officials, coaches, players and spectators to keep sports such as safe, fair and inclusive.

White, a three test Australian Rugby League representative, attended the website's launch by Minister Andrew Barr along with stars from the other major sporting teams in the ACT including Union, hockey, basketball, touch, netball and soccer.

Brett will be involved in a radio and twitter campaign to promote the Play By The Rules initiative.

“It’s all about fair sport on and off the field and gives clubs and organisations the tools it needs to set up a fair and inclusive club and also the tools to deal with incidents that are against this ethos including harassment, abuse, team selection policies and inclusive sport.”

“It also provides legal documents clubs can use.”

“Our club follows the Play By the Rules policies and we encourage all sports out there to do the same”

COUNTRY Rugby League (CRL) officials have confirmed Cooma is in contention to host next year's City-Country representative match but deny a deal is done.

Told of speculation that Cooma would host next year's rep fixture, Raiders prop and Cooma junior Brett White said it would inspire his nine-month recovery from a knee reconstruction to try and force his way back into representative footy and play in front of a home crowd.

But CRL chief executive Terry Quinn poured ice on that enthusiasm, saying a decision on next year's venue would not be made until July. The Australian Rugby League Commission voted last week to retain the annual City-Country match and media speculation was that Cooma would be host in 2013.

Raiders prop Brett White is ahead of schedule in his comeback from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in round five against the Cowboys. He and Campese have fed off each other during their hard days out on the track.

''If I start to think it's getting hard and I'm doing it tough, I just look at what Campo's gone through,'' White, the Raiders vice-captain, said.

''It's great to have him around, it's a lot harder when you're on your own coming back from an injury, but to have someone else there when someone's having a tough day, the other person's there to help them through.''

White's frustration at being injured and missing most of the season was tempered by watching the club's younger players develop their leadership skills.

He declared the Raiders side was better positioned than ever to handle adversity, with the likes of Shaun Fensom, 24, Jarrod Croker, 22, and Joel Thompson, 24, assuming more senior roles.

''It's not good to have injuries to your leaders, but the positive is it allows the younger blokes to step up and develop to those levels,'' White said. ''It's great for the team to have that depth; the last thing we want is to be top heavy and relying on certain blokes.''

Campese has made the best of his time away from the game by immersing himself in charity work, in particular his role as an ambassador for CanTeen ACT.

The 28-year-old will hold his second annual golf day at Federal Golf Club on Friday, and hopes to raise $100,000 for CanTeen and other local charities.

Newcastle Knights legend Andrew Johns heads a number of celebrities confirmed for the event, which tees off with a shotgun start at 12.30pm.

A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his knee may have ended Brett White’s impact on the field, however the international front rower more than made up for his absence on the field with a distinct influence off it in 2012.